Meall Corranaich and Meall a' Choire Léith

30th May 2010

Two Munros today and my first foray into the Ben Lawers / Glen Lyon area. First things first, how do you pronounce the names of these 2 hills?

Meall Corranaich: Miaowl Korraneech (Hill of the Sickel) 1069m

Meall a' Choire Leith: Miaowl uh Horrer Leer (Hill of the Grey Corrie) 926m

I left Stirling at about 9:30 and had a great drive up over Glen Ogle and down to Loch Tay, then up the narrow road to the Ben Lawers nature reserve. Unfortunately the Ben Lawers Visitors Centre is now closed, so there's no facilities available there. The car park was full and plenty of people were heading off up towards Beinn Ghlas and Ben Lawers beyond. That's a ridge walk that I'm saving for next month. I carried on up the road and parked at the top of Lochan na Lairige. There were already a few cars there and the other parking spaces further up the road were full too. So it looked like I wouldn't have the hills to myself. To be expected given it's a holiday weekend and a popular area.

Checking the GPS I noted that the starting altitude was 540m, this seemed like cheating given the first peak was at 1069m. The initial hike was pretty heavy going crossing heather & peat moor with lots of tussocky grass and sphagnum moss. Fortunately I'd put my gaiters on from the outset, something I don't usually remember to do. Crossing this sort of ground is as hard going as it is up hill. I eventually reached the path up the shoulder of Meall Corranaich and slowly eased my way to the top. Great views to the west of Meall nan Tarmachan, with a cloudless top, though looking north dark clouds were gathering. The summit where I was heading was clear. Further up the shoulder good views to the south of Loch Tay and Ben Vorlich beyond. All those folk heading up the Ben Lawers ridge had cloudy summits.

The top of Meall Corranaich was pretty uninteresting, with no real cairn to speak of. The wind had really picked up and was pretty cold, especially turning north to head for Meall a' Choire Leith. The route was clearly laid out in front of me, with the impressive Coire Liath forming the bridge between the two mountains. After stopping was a bite and a drink I was soon on summit number 2. Meall a' Choire Leith is a broad rounded top mountain. The cairn was better than the previous hill, but again not that inspiring so I quicky turned and headed south west down a very steep slope.

On the descent I started getting the MC Hammer pants effect again. I don't know what it is with my hiking trousers; no matter how well I tighten the belt they seem to slip down to a Hammer-Time look. I have a second pair of the same trousers, same size, just a different colour and don't have the same problem. Weird eh?

Once down off the steep slopes it was another slog across the peat, heather and sphagnum moss. I passed a couple of large groups of folk at this stage, all heading back to the same car parks. I'm not sure that I could enjoy the hills walking in such large groups.

Fortunately the rain kept off. A good day in the hills, although the summits were a tad dull, the surrounding mountains were stunning and I'll be looking forward to getting up on the Ben Lawers ridge, hopefully on a clear day.

Distance: 10.8km

Time: 3:20

Ascent: 882m

Munros: 2 (total 7/283)

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